Delivering “good service” isn’t enough

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Competition, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Relationships, Sales Skills, Teamwork

I was impressed by a brief but excellent ABC News Video on the impact of social media on a business’ reputation and brand, especially when things go wrong and that to reduce or eliminate any negative publicity issues to begin with starts with something rather old fashioned – delivering Service. This got me musing about and the importance of good ‘ol fashioned customer service’ and what it really means today in a digital world.  The team has proposed we adopt C.A.R.E. as our mantra.

What is C.A.R.E. about?

Everyone knows that delivering good customer service is a fundamental building …

Delivering “good service” isn’t enough Read Post »

How do your clients really perceive you?

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Business Acumen, Communication, Education in Sales, Mindful selling, Prospecting, Role Clarity, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Relationships

Perception is reality. So what do your clients really think of you? Would you be happy with how they perceive you? Are they thinking any of the following when they think about you and your company?:

  • ‘I’m so glad I’ve met you; my life/business is better off for knowing you.’
    or
  • ‘Oh that guy (gal), yeh they’re pretty good’
    or
  • ‘They’re nice but I don’t always have the time to chat with them’
    or
  • ‘That arrogant so and so’
    or
  • ‘Aghhh, I don’t trust them, get them out of my office now’
    or
  • ‘Who?’

    • Good relationships take time and effort to build and create something really valuable …

    How do your clients really perceive you? Read Post »

    Customer Satisfaction & Retention Booster

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Customer Service, Marketing, Sales Management, Sales Relationships, Sales Results, Sales Tips, Success

    It is five to ten times easier to keep a customer we have than to get a new one – so taking customer satisfaction and retention seriously should be serious business. We already have the most powerful marketing tool to boost customer satisfaction and increase customer retention, as well as improve employee morale and develop new products and services that are exactly what our customers want and need. The problem is that most companies don’t use it.

    There is no more useful tool in our marketing armoury than our front-line sales and service people. …

    Customer Satisfaction & Retention Booster Read Post »

    Recognition or Praise?

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Education in Sales, Emotional Intelligence, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Motivation & Rewards, Sales Relationships, Sales Results, Sales Talent, Sales Tips

    Sales managers are being told to do more with less, to work smarter to get peak performance from their sales teams, despite increasingly limited resources. As tough as it is, there is one tool in the sales manager’s portfolio that is never in short supply – Praise!

    Yet for some reason, many sales managers find it challenging to show their appreciation for their sales people’s efforts, reluctantly doling out praise as if it was in short supply. …

    Recognition or Praise? Read Post »

    Know Thy Customer – Buyers in the Driver’s Seat

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Communication, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Relationships, Sales Tips

    Robyn Creed our Head of Coaching hales originally from country NSW and recently spent a relaxing weekend mustering cattle on her sisters’ 11,000 acre property north of Jerilderie, in NSW. Here is her account of the cattle industry and how buyers are truly in the driver’s seat when it comes to customer buying preferences. “Over the course of the weekend we discussed many interesting facts in relation to producing quality cattle and I realised that like the Apples’ and Samsungs’ of this world cattle producers breed cattle based on the specific needs of what their …

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    Stop Throwing our Salespeople and Sales Managers into the Deep End

    By / / Education in Sales, Role Clarity, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Relationships, Sales Training, Success

    Isn’t it about time we stop throwing our sales people and sales managers in the deep end and expecting them to swim – or sell and lead with no support or training in this case? Isn’t it about time that we had frank conversations with our potential recruits about what sales and sales manager roles really entail and make sure our recruits really do have the skills, mindset and knowledge to take on the …

    Stop Throwing our Salespeople and Sales Managers into the Deep End Read Post »

    4 rules to best validate yourself with buyers

    By / / Communication, Negotiation, Sales Relationships, Sales Strategy, Self Promotion

    Ever been asked straight up at the beginning of a prospective client meeting, “So what do you do?” despite your sincere intention to ask questions of your prospective buyer rather than talk about yourself?

    I bet you have and I bet you found yourself on more than one occasion feeling somewhat uncomfortable because:

    a) You didn’t know what to say quickly and succinctly thus making yourself feel and look a bit silly;

    or

    b) You ended up talking about your business, your products and yourself ad nauseam while watching your client or buyer’s eyes glaze over.

    Hmm Awkward … why do …

    4 rules to best validate yourself with buyers Read Post »

    Getting Personal Or Time To Get Personal

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Customer Service, Sales Relationships

    ‘Getting Personal’ was voted as the Number 12 Sales Trends for 2011. Despite the advances in technology and the rise of the Internet, customers still want personal and single contact satisfaction. Contrary to some pundits who believe the role of salespeople is becoming obsolete with the proliferation of Internet and mobile technology, effective sales professionals and a personal approach to selling remains important to successful business this year and in the years to come. Smart salespeople are offloading functional and transactional activities to better concentrate …

    Getting Personal Or Time To Get Personal Read Post »

    Breast Ain’t Best: Why Sex & Selling Don’t Mix

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Culture, Sales Relationships

    ‘Sex’ as a consumer marketing and sales strategy infiltrates our daily lives via advertising, celebrity endorsements, tabloids, publications and various other means and has done so for as long as we can remember. Using images of women (more recently men) in a variety of formats is supposed to entice prospective buyers (adults) and sell products and services. The ‘sex sells’ consumer marketing strategy is more recently infiltrating children’s markets creating much angst and debate about its merits and rightly so.

    I want to make it clear that I’m not attempting to debate the use of ‘sex’ in consumer marketing here. Although …

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    Why B2B Buying Decisions Are Taking Longer Than Ever

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Mindful selling, Sales Coaching, Sales Forecasting, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Measures - Inputs & Outputs, Sales Pipeline, Sales Planning, Sales Relationships, Sales Training

    Are companies taking longer to make buying decisions or does it come down to impatience on the part of the B2B sales person, in a hurry to reach their sales targets? It seems nowadays buying decisions are taking longer to make than in previous years. This slow purchasing process isn’t just happening at the enterprise level in large scale businesses, it’s extended right across the board.

    Protracted buying is dramatically slowing the sales process. The flow-on effects of such time delays are causing blow-outs in the cost of sale for many

    Why B2B Buying Decisions Are Taking Longer Than Ever Read Post »

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